Unbeknowst to you, your computer could be a double agent, committing cybercrime as part of a internet-connected botnet. Over 2.2 million American PCs are part of some botnet, according to Microsoft. (Source: Ubisoft)

Over 2.2 million PCs in
the U.S. are infected with a virus that makes them part of one of the
internet's massive botnets. The term "botnet" refers
to a group of connected computers that can be used for ill purposes
such as spamming, distributed denial of service (DDoS) attacks, and
mass credit card fraud.

Brazil came in second place for most
infected computers, with 550,000 botnet-infected PCs. Per
computer population, though South Korea had the highest rate (though
its total number of infected machines is lower than that of the U.S.
or Brazil). In South Korea 14.6 out of 1,000 PCs are in a
botnet, versus 5.2 computers out of 1,000 in the U.S.

Cliff
Evans, head of security and identity at Microsoft UK, comments to BBC
News,
"Most people have this idea of a virus and how it used to
announce itself. Few people know about botnets."

Fewer
people perhaps know about Microsoft's Malicious Software Removal Tool
(MRT). MRT has been is a free tool Microsoft includes with
Windows XP, Windows Vista, and Windows 7. First released in
2005, the tool is easy to run -- just go to "Start", type
"run" in the search bar, and then type "mrt"
(case insensitive) in the resulting popup. The tool will then
activate and be ready to scan your computer and remove many common
types of malware.

Perhaps if everyone learns how to use the
MRT, America can escape earning the dubious distinction of being the
world's biggest botnet participant in 2011. Given the general
public's ignorance
of security, that seems unlikely, though.

Despite the
difficulty in getting the public to practice proper security,
Microsoft is taking steps to try to win the war against botnet
masters on its own. The company recently seized
control over 276 internet domains that were being used by
botnet owners. And it has beefed
up the securityof its most recent operating system, Windows 7,
making it harder to infect new PCs.